Homemade Vegan

Joanne O'Connell

The Homemade Vegan

A Historical Collection of Vegan Recipes from the 1970s

Dairy-free diets are now in vogue. Supermarkets sell soya yoghurts, almond milks and tofu sausages. There are vegan options on restaurant menus and there’s no end of media coverage about celebrities cutting their milk intake. It wasn’t always like this. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, being vegan in the UK was seen as a far more radical and counter-culture movement than it is today. Even vegetarians were on the fringes (“It felt like we were a different sect of people,” says Mary McCarthy of her vegetarian family in the 1970s). The vegans back then were ahead of their time: they whipped up their own cashew nut creams, poured tofu into blocks, experimented with recipes for nut ‘cheeses’ and dished up healthy, wholesome, thrifty meals. This book is a collection of recipes from this time and gives them a proper context, referring to the communities and households who created the recipes and what it was like for vegans back then. Joanne O’Connell is a national journalist: she writes for newspapers, including the Guardian, magazines and websites and occasionally appears on radio and TV. Joanne also works in a consultancy role with companies, on brand narrative, social responsibility and consumer engagement. She lives in England, runs cookery classes for children and is involved with local sustainable food projects. Joanne has written for theGuardian; theObserver, theIndependent; theTimes; theDaily Express; the Sunday Express; Top Santé; Essentials; Natural Health and on websites, such as: Orange.co.uk; Sky.com and Moneysupermarket.com. She has been a guest on debate panels at sustainable food events.

Bee Wilson wrote about vegan history in The Guardian on Saturday, 26th January. On The Homemade Vegan by Joanne O'Connell, she said: 'a charming slice of social history, which recalls the experiences and recipes of those who cooked with such ingredients as tofu and cashew cream long before they were fashionable.' The Guardian January 2019